Pallets of Glamour
Yesterday, I spent about two hours unloading and organizing a truckload of coffee supplies in our Northern Vessel warehouse. Pushing around pallet jacks, climbing on ladders, and cleaning up the space. Some of the delivered goods were damaged, some destroyed. It needed a full audit. It’s amazing how much work goes into providing our guests with an excellent finished product.
Sounds glamorous, doesn't it? That's not necessarily what we think of when we idealize and idolize business ownership. Instead, we think about the polished social media highlight reels, attending fun conferences, maintaining a "flexible schedule," and not having a boss.
The truth is, owning businesses is rarely sexy. I recently had a young adult shadow me for a day, excited to see all the amazing things I get to do. Let's just say it didn't live up to his sky-high expectations. He did see some of the cool things I get to do, but, more than anything, I think his key takeaway was how much behind-the-scenes dirty work is required.
This brings to light two ideas for the day. First, don't demean your own job. Your job probably includes some mundane, unsexy, dirty work. All jobs do! However, when we recognize the mundane in our own job and pretend other people's jobs don't have it, it's easy to believe the grass is always greener on the other side.
Second, business ownership and self-employment aren't always what they're cracked up to be. Yes, there are some cool aspects to it, but it's not THE definition of good work. All work has pros and cons, including business ownership. The right work for you is the right work for you, regardless of whether it's W-2 employment, 1099 contract work, or business ownership. All work matters!
Regardless of where we land in our work, we must take the bad with the good, and the good with the bad. It's not always supposed to be fun....that's not the point. However, it should absolutely mean something to each of us. So no, grinding in the warehouse yesterday wasn't my definition of the best time, but considering the overall purpose and context, it mattered. But since nobody else is there to see all my pallets of glamour, it would be so easy for people to assume all my work is fun and games. Now you have photo evidence that nothing is what it seems on the glossy surface!
I hope you enjoy your work today….even the less-than-glamorous parts!
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